New techniques to help halt the spread of diseasescientists have revealed a new technique to introduce disease-blocking bacteria into mosquitoes with promising results that may halt the spread of diseases such as dengue yellow fever and potentially malaria.
When infected with the bacteria Wolbachia mosquitoes are unable to spread viruses such as dengue a disease
However the bacteria has been difficult to spread within the mosquito population because it reduces the mosquitoes'ability to lay viable eggs.
Now Professor Hoffmann from the University of Melbourne and Professor Michale Turelli from the University of California have shown that by introducing an insecticide resistance gene alongside the Wolbachia bacteria into the mosquito that the insects pass on the disease-blocking bacteria to other mosquitoes faster.
Wolbachia bacteria strains live naturally inside up to 70%of all insects and are known to protect them against viral infection.
because a Wolbachia-infected female with a resistance gene will always pass on both the gene and the bacteria to her offspring.
Then when an uninfected female mates with an infected male the bacterium causes cytoplasmic incompatibility which leads to the death of embryos.
and safer wastewater reuse (e g. photocatalytically-enhanced disinfection biofouling-resistant membranes and biofilm-and corrosion-resistant surfaces).
and moregenes from the family of bacteria that produce vinegar Kombucha tea and nata de coco have become stars in a project
In the 1800s French scientist Louis Pasteur first discovered that vinegar-making bacteria make a sort of moist skin swollen gelatinous and slippery--a skin now known as bacterial nanocellulose.
Nanocellulose made by bacteria has advantages including ease of production and high purity that fostered the kind of scientific excitement reflected in the first international symposium on the topic Brown pointed out.
which are mainly photosynthetic bacteria much like the vinegar-making bacteria in basic structure; however these blue-green algae or cyanobacteria as they are called can produce nanocellulose.
Since the 1970s Brown and colleagues began focusing on Acetobacter xylinum (A. xylinum) a bacterium that secretes nanocellulose directly into the culture medium
or other bacteria engineered with those genes to make commercial amounts of nanocellulose. Bacteria for instance would need a high-purity broth of food
and other nutrients to grow in the huge industrial fermentation tanks that make everything from vinegar and yogurt to insulin and other medicines.
The genome sequencing of the first North american pest bark beetle species in the Genus dendroctonus also uncovers a bacterial gene that has jumped into the MPB genome.
Corn and cotton have been modified genetically to produce pest-killing proteins from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt for short.
#Diverse bacteria on fresh fruits, vegetables vary with produce type, farming practicesfresh fruit and vegetables carry an abundance of bacteria on their surfaces not all of
which cause disease. In the first study to assess the variety of these non-pathogenic bacteria scientists report that these surface bacteria vary depending on the type of produce and cultivation practices.
The results are published March 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Jonathan Leff and Noah Fierer at the University of Colorado Boulder.
and strawberries have similar surface bacteria with the majority of these microbes belonging to one family.
Fruit like apples peaches and grapes have more variable surface bacterial communities from three or four different groups.
The authors also found differences in surface bacteria between produce grown using different farming practices.
These surface bacteria on produce can impact the rate at which food spoils and may be the source of typical microbes on kitchen surfaces.
The results of this new research suggest that people may be exposed to substantially different bacteria depending on the types of produce they consume Story Source:
#Poultry probiotic cuts its coat to beat bad bacteriaa strain of probiotic bacteria that can fight harmful bacterial infections in poultry has the ability to change its coat according to new findings from the Institute of Food Research.
Now in research published in the journal PLOS ONE they have found that the probiotic bacteria have the ability to alter their coat.
when examining the bacteria that a small number of them appear smooth. They identified genes responsible for making a special coat or slime capsule which the bacteria surround themselves In this protects the bacteria from stomach acids
and bile salts and helps them come together to form biofilms. It may also protect against drying out when outside the host.
The natural appearance of smooth mutants could be used a ploy by the bacteria to introduce variation into its populations making them able to take advantage of different environments.
By turning off one or more of the coat genes they could see what effect this had on its ability to stick to gut tissues.
This competitive exclusion could be one reason why the probiotic strain prevents the growth of other harmful bacteria.
As these bacteria have previously been used in the food chain and are considered safe for human consumption this probiotic strain could become new way of controlling C. perfringens.
caused by bacterial infection in the gastrointestinal tract. The findings slated to appear March 13 in the online scientific journal PLOS ONE offer hope that such milk may eventually help prevent human diarrheal diseases that each year claim the lives of 1. 8 million children around the world
Because lysozyme limits the growth of some bacteria that cause intestinal infections and diarrhea and also encourages the growth of other beneficial intestinal bacteria it is considered to be one of the main components of human milk that contribute to the health and well-being of breast-fed infants.
Pigs were chosen for this study as a research model because their gastrointestinal physiology is quite similar to humans
and sample foreign matter such as vaccines bacteria or viruses they come together as a group during what he and his team call the critical differentiation period.
In experiments with a mouse model of human immune function the scientists vaccinated mice for listeria a common bacterium that causes food-borne illness
and then exposed the animals to the bacteria. Mice in which the critical differentiation period was allowed to occur unimpeded remained healthy protected from a potentially lethal infection.
The building blocks of blue-green algae#sunlight carbon dioxide and bacteria#are being used by researchers at KTH Royal Institute of technology in Stockholm to produce butanol a hydrocarbon-like fuel for motor vehicles.
A bacterium that produces cheap fuel by sunlight and carbon dioxide could change the world. Hudson agrees.#
Without fungi and bacteria we'd be I don't know how many meters deep in waste both plant matter and animal tissue.
In one project ARS microbiologist Lisa Durso used fecal samples from six beef cattle to identify a core set of bovine gastrointestinal bacterial groups common to both beef
She also observed a number of bacteria in the beef cattle that had not been reported in dairy cows and identified a diverse assortment of bacteria from the six individual animals
even though all six consumed the same diet and were breed the same gender and age. In another study Durso collaborated with ARS agricultural engineer John Gilley
After a series of simulated rain events the team collected and analyzed samples of field runoff and determined that neither diet nor tillage management significantly affected the transport of fecal indicator bacteria.
But they did note that diet affected the transport of bacteriophages--viruses that invade bacteria--in field runoff.
HLB is caused by the bacteria of the genus Candidatus Liberibacter. Symptoms of the disease include blotchy mottled leaves sections of yellow
viruses fungi and bacteria whereas in crops farmers try to eliminate the microbes. Perhaps there is a connection.
The authors say their results show for the first time that bacteria present in the large intestine in people deconjugate
#Lack of energy an enemy to antibiotic-resistant microbesrice University researchers cured a strain of bacteria of its ability to resist an antibiotic in an experiment that has implications for a longstanding public health crisis. Rice environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez
Over 120 generations the starving bacteria chose to conserve valuable energy rather than use it to pass on the plasmid--a small
A lot of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria originate in animal agriculture where there is overuse misuse and abuse of antibiotics.
The Rice researchers tested their theory on two strains of bacteria P. aeruginosa which is found in soil
If any antibiotic-resistant bacteria are part of a biological mix whether in a person an animal or in the environment the weak microbes will die
So there is incentive to eliminate the resistance plasmid from bacteria in the environment as close to the source as possible.
That may not kill the bacteria but it's enough to have bacteria notice a deficiency in their ability to obtain energy from the environment and feel the stress to dump resistant genes.
Alvarez has been chipping away at the problem since moving to Rice from the University of Iowa in 2004 even without American funding for research.
Our work shows that RNA silencing suppression is a common strategy used by a variety of pathogens--viruses bacteria
The methane-producing bacteria in the cow's gut thrive on these plants. The more roughage is in the diet of the ruminant animal the more methane is produced by the microbes in the gut of the ruminant
which the methane-producing bacteria cannot use as effectively. Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases.
The Ohio State university study also showed that bacteria living in the mouth are responsible for most of the breakdown of these compounds that occurs in saliva.
Our observations suggest that the bacteria within one's oral cavity are a primary mediator of pigment metabolism.
The bacteria are converting compounds that are present in the foods into metabolites Failla said.
or the metabolites produced by bacteria in the mouth and other regions of the gastrointestinal tract.
which bacteria are involved most in the metabolism of anthocyanins and testing the stability of the pigments in berry juices in the mouths of human volunteers rather than in test tubes containing their saliva.
and possibly be contaminated by bacteria according to a study published this month by researchers at the Cummings School of veterinary medicine at Tufts University and the University of Guelph.
and bacterial contamination of these popular items made from the uncooked dried penis of a bull or steer.
All 26 treats were tested for bacterial contaminants. One (4 percent) of the sticks was contaminated with Clostridium difficile;
one (four percent) was contaminated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to certain antibiotics;
and not all of these bacterial strains have been shown to infect humans. However the researchers advise all pet owners to wash their hands after touching such treats as they would with any raw meat or raw meat diets.
#Bacterial supplement could help young pigs at weaning age fight diseasea common type of bacteria may help pigs stay healthy during weaning.
In a study of 36 weanling-age pigs researchers found that a dose of lipid-producing Rhodococcus opacus bacteria increased circulating triglycerides.
We could potentially strengthen the immune system by providing this bacterium to animals at a stage
Donaldson and other researchers tested R. opacus because the bacterium naturally makes large amounts of triglycerides.
Even if pigs ate less feed they would still have access to the triglycerides produced by these bacteria.
She said the bacteria could be provided to pigs through existing watering systems. The next step in the experiment is to test how pigs given R. opacus react to an immune challenge such as Salmonella.
Researchers then insert the modified gene back into the plant using a bacterium. The role of the bacterium is to act as a sort of shuttle service for the modified gene.
Producing more biomassthe principle is transferable and could be used on other kinds of plants; at the moment the scientists are working also on potato plants on behalf of a Japanese chemical company.
Which type of bacteria causes severe lung disease in European brown hare? Molecular biological analyses of tissue samples always confront scientists with the same problem:
In fact entire mitochondrial genomes and almost the entire genome sequence of a bacterium were obtained when specifically tested for the efficiency of the by-catch principle.
From the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli contained in a human urine sample the scientists retrieved 90 per cent of the genome in one go.
#Fermented milk made by lactococcus lactis H61 improves skin of healthy young womenthere has been much interest in the potential for using probiotic bacteria for treating skin diseases and other disorders.
Although many reports have addressed the effect of lactic acid bacteria on skin properties in subjects with skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis few studies have involved healthy humans explains lead investigator Hiromi Kimoto-Nira Phd
The investigators conducted a randomized double-blind trial to evaluate the effects of fermented milk produced using Lactococcus lactis strain H61 as a starter bacterium (H61-fermented milk) on the general health and various skin properties
#Potential of autochthonous bacteria for use as biofertilizersneiker-Tecnalia the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and development is working to select autochthonous bacteria with a biofertilizing potential
because bacteria-based biofertilizers constitute an alternative to conventional chemical fertilizers that are expensive and less sustainable from the environmental point of view.
The final goal in selecting autochthonous bacteria with a biofertilizing potential is to create a bacterial strain bank to be used subsequently in biofertilizing formulations.
These bacteria have the capacity to increase the bioavailability of nutrients present in the soil
In this respect the bacteria used in biofertilizer formulations encourage plants to absorb on their own a greater quantity of nutrients
By contrast the bacteria containing biofertilizing formulations compete with other microorganisms in the soil and can hamper the appearance of crop pests
Neiker-Tecnalia researchers isolated autochthonous bacterial strains belonging to soil samples and plant tissue. They then selected the best candidates by means of in vitro analysis
One of the aims of this experiment is to test the capability of the bacteria with a biofertilizing potential
if we are to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistant bacteria senior researcher Yvonne Agersã¸from the National Food Institute says.
Facts about antimicrobial resistancetreatment with antimicrobials is intended to kill pathogenic bacteria. Unfortunately antimicrobials also cause the bacteria to protect themselves by developing resistance to the type of antimicrobials that are used to treat them.
Resistant bacteria can be transmitted between humans and bacteria can infect each other with resistance. However resistant bacteria are poor at surviving
if antimicrobials are not present. Therefore it is important to have an overall focus on using as few antimicrobials as possible for the treatment of both animals and humans.
Bacteria know no borders therefore antimicrobial resistance in one country can cause problems outside of its borders.
As such the use of antimicrobials in both animals and humans is a global problem. Not all antimicrobials are the same.
Some are narrow spectrum and affect only individual groups of bacteria. They are used when you know which bacteria are causing the disease.
Others are broad spectrum and affect numerous groups of bacteria at the same time. They can therefore be used to treat a disease before knowing which bacteria are the cause.
However they often also kill useful and harmless bacteria such as bacteria from the intestine which may lead to the emergence of resistant bacteria.
Not all antimicrobials are equally important in the treatment of humans. WHO has declared a number of antimicrobials to be'critically important
'because they are the only or one of only a few antimicrobials which can be used to treat serious
or life-threatening infections in humans These types include carbapenems third and fourth generation cephalosporins fluoroquinolones and macrolides.
Find the DANMAP report on DANMAP's website: http://www. danmap. org/Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Technical University of Denmark (DTU.
pregnant women against heavy metal poisoningyogurt containing probiotic bacteria successfully protected children and pregnant women against heavy metal exposure in a recent study.
and distributed a special yogurt containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria and observed the outcomes against a control group.
The tart green Granny smith apples benefit the growth of friendly bacteria in the colon due to their high content of nondigestible compounds including dietary fiber and polyphenols and low content of available carbohydrates.
Once there they are fermented by bacteria in the colon which benefits the growth of friendly bacteria in the gut.
The study showed that Granny smith apples surpass Braeburn Fuji Gala Golden delicious Mcintosh and Red delicious in the amount of nondigestible compounds they contain.
The nondigestible compounds in the Granny smith apples actually changed the proportions of fecal bacteria from obese mice to be similar to that of lean mice Noratto said.
The balance of bacterial communities in the colon of obese people is disturbed. This results in microbial byproducts that lead to inflammation and influence metabolic disorders associated with obesity Noratto said.
What determines the balance of bacteria in our colon is the food we consume she said.
Reestablishing a healthy balance of bacteria in the colon stabilizes metabolic processes that influence inflammation and the sensation of feeling satisfied
#Plants prepackage beneficial microbes in their seedsplants have a symbiotic relationship with certain bacteria. These'commensal'bacteria help the pants extract nutrients
and defend against invaders--an important step in preventing pathogens from contaminating fruits and vegetables. Now scientists have discovered that plants may package their commensal bacteria inside of seeds;
thus ensuring that sprouting plants are colonized from the beginning. The researchers from the University of Notre dame presented their findings at the 5th ASM Conference on Beneficial Microbes.
Plants play host to a wide variety of bacteria; the plant microbiome. Just as in humans the plant microbiome is shaped by the types of bacteria that successfully colonize the plant's ecosystem.
Most of these bacteria are symbiotic drawing from and providing for the plant in ways such as nitrogen-fixing and leaf-protection.
Pathogenic bacteria may also colonize a plant. Pathogens can include viruses and bacteria that damage the plant itself or bacteria like the Shiga-toxin producing E coli O104:
H4. In 2011 Germany France and The netherlands experienced an outbreak of E coli that was traced ultimately to the consumption of contaminated sprouts
which was thought to be caused by feral pigs in the growing area. Such opportunistic contamination is hard to guard against as most growing takes place in open outdoor spaces with little opportunity for control.
The hypothesis behind this research is that the best way to defend against pathogenic contamination is with a healthy microbiome colonized by bacteria provide protection from invasive pathogens.
whether commensal bacteria could be found in various plant sources including seed supplies said Dr. Lee.
and grow a bacterium that was packaged inside a seed was quite surprising. The researchers first sterilized and tested the outer portion of a sealed whole seed.
and placed them in bacterial agar which they incubated. What they found was the new strain of Bacillus pumilus a unique highly motile Gram-positive bacterium capable of colonizing the mung bean plant without causing any harm.
Legumes such as soybean plants have the capacity to form mutually beneficial relationships with bacteria in the soil to fix nitrogen.
The plant houses the bacteria in a structure where the biochemical conditions are conducive for the bacteria to fix nitrogen Subramanian said.
The plant provides the bacteria with carbohydrates and gets nitrogen in return The bacteria called Rhizobium enter the root cells of young plants
and trigger the formation of nodules to house the bacteria he explained. Within the nodules two distinct zones--one that fixes the nitrogen
and another that transports it to the plant--are formed from the same preexisting root cells.
A group of German and French scientists under the direction of the Goethe University Frankfurt have discovered that the smell of white truffles is produced largely by soil bacteria
Yeasts and bacteria which make cheese and wine have been researched in depth but little is known about how the flavour of other organisms including truffles is created.
The researchers were able to show that bacteria produce a specific class of volatile cyclic sulphur compounds
We don't just want to know which part of the truffle flavour is produced by bacteria. We are interested also in how the symbiosis between fungi
A dairy cow becomes restless four hours after it contracts bacterial mastitis. Simultaneously the other symptoms of a steadily progressing inflammation such as increased body temperature
In looking for biofuels microbes in the cow rumen we found that Prevotella bryantii a bacterium that is known to efficiently break down (the plant fiber) hemicellulose gears up production of one gene more than others
which belong to the same bacterial phylum as Prevotella from the cow. We expressed the human gut bacterial enzymes
and found that for some related enzymes the human ones actually were more active (in breaking down hemicellulose) than the enzymes from the cow Cann said.
#Lymphatic fluid used for first time to detect bovine paratuberculosisparatuberculosis also known as Johne's disease is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP.
During this time infected animals shed the bacteria putting the health of the entire herd at risk.
Lymphatic fluid suitable for early testingthe bacterium MAP enters the body via the intestine and is passed to the animal's macrophages.
Just a few millilitres are enough to detect the bacterium using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) in the lymph.
#For legume plants, a new route from shoot to roota new study shows that legume plants regulate their symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria by using cytokinins--signaling molecules--that are transmitted through the plant structure from leaves
into the roots to control the number of bacteria-holding nodules in the roots. This collaborative study was conducted by researchers from the National Institute for Basic Biology the Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) and the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan.
they develop a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia allowing the bacteria to infect them within special structures known as nodules that are located along their roots.
#Each tree species has unique bacterial identity, microbiome research showseach tree species has its own bacterial identity.
That's the conclusion of University of Oregon researchers and colleagues from other institutions who studied the genetic fingerprints of bacteria on 57 species of trees growing on a Panamanian island.
This study demonstrates for the first time that host plants from different plant families and with different ecological strategies possess very different microbial communities on their leaves said lead author Steven W. Kembel a former postdoctoral researcher in the UO's Institute of Ecology
For the research--published this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences--researchers gathered bacterial samples from 57 of the more than 450 tree species growing in a lowland tropical forest
Using DNA sequencing technology housed at the UO's Genomics Core Facility scientists sequenced the bacterial 16s RIBOSOMAL RNA gene isolated from the samples.
and measure the diversity of bacteria based on millions of DNA fragments produced from bacterial communities collected from the surfaces of leaves said Jessica Green a professor at both the UO and Santa fe Institute.
Some bacteria were very abundant and present on every leaf in the forest while others were rare and only found on the leaves of a single host species Kembel said.
Each tree species of tree possessed a distinctive community of bacteria on its leaves. In the world of microbiology plant leaves are considered to be a habitat known as the phyllosphere.
They are host to millions of bacteria Kembel said. These bacteria can have important effects--both positive
and negative--on the health and functioning of their host plants he said. For example while some bacteria on leaves cause disease others may protect the plant against pathogens or produce hormones that increase plant growth rates.
In the animal microbiome the researchers noted studies comparing large numbers of species have shown that host diet--for example herbivory
We found that the abundance of some bacterial taxa was correlated with the growth mortality and function of the host Kembel said.
These included bacteria involved in nitrogen fixing and the consumption of methane as well as bacteria linked to soil and water.
Dominating the bacterial communities were a core microbiome of taxa including Actinobacteria Alpha-Beta-and Gamma-proteobacteria and Sphingobacteria.
Some types of bacteria the researcher found were more abundant when growing on the leaves of fast-growing or slow-growing tree species or on leaves with different concentrations of elements such as nitrogen or phosphorus. Because of the importance of the microbiome for the growth and function of the host understanding the factors
that influence bacteria on the leaves of different trees could have important implications for our ability to model
and conserve biological diversity and ecosystem function Kembel said. Ultimately we hope that understanding the factors that explain variation in bacterial abundances across host species will help us better manage biological diversity in forests and the health and function of forest ecosystems.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Oregon. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet more is known about bellybutton bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics.
Smithsonian scientists and colleagues working on Panama's Barro Colorado Island discovered that small leaf samples from a single tree were home to more than 400 different kinds of bacteria.
Bacteria in tropical forests may also play a vital role protecting leaves against pathogens and even affecting the ability of forests to respond to climate change.
or negative--we hope to discover what bacteria on tree leaves can tell us about the health of a forest said S. Joseph Wright a Smithsonian scientist
In contrast to a previous study of bacteria on leaves in a temperate forest where different leaves had different bacteria there was a core group of species of common bacteria present on leaves of nearly all of the species sampled in Panama.
Just as on human skin many of the bacteria on tropical tree leaves were Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria.
The researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute University of Quebec University of Arizona University of Oregon University of California--Los angeles and Santa fe Institute also looked for relationships between the composition of bacterial communities
Many bacteria were associated with certain functional traits such as leaf thickness wood density or leaf nitrogen content characteristics that directly impact tree growth survival and reproduction.
The relationships between many of the bacteria and tree species they sampled were ancient going back to the ancestors of both the bacteria
Our ability to use molecular techniques like 16s RIBOSOMAL RNA gene sequencing to characterize nearly all of the bacteria on a leaf is going to make it possible to see how very different members of forest communities interact said Wright.
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